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Who is James Norton? Teacher and Dinosaur Researcher
Figuring Out What to Be
Finding a Job
At UNECOM, Dr. Norton is now a Professor and has been Chair of the department since 1986. He does a lot of teaching, serves on committees and does other things for the school, and still does research. The people in his department do all the teaching of physiology to medical students training to be family doctors or medical specialists. They also teach students who want to be physician assistants and nurse anesthetists (who help during surgery to put people to sleep). Dr. Norton teaches classes about cells, nerves, muscle, the heart, and the lungs for all these students. He helps plan what classes will be taught and how to keep teachers up-to-date on what they teach and how they teach. He tries to show other teachers that they should be teaching students things they can’t get from reading textbooks. ResearchDr. Norton has two different research projects. One is a little different – he is trying to figure out how the lungs and airways worked in a group of dinosaurs called theropods (think Velociraptor from Jurassic Park!). This combines a childhood interest of his (what kid isn’t interested in dinosaurs!) in how different kinds of animals have different ways of dealing with things like moving blood around the body and handling food, with how they breathe, and using computer to figure out how it might have worked. Dr. Norton has given several talks at national dinosaur meetings and is writing papers about what he’s doing that he’s hoping to get printed in science magazines. To do this type of research means Dr. Norton needs to visit museums, take pictures and measure dinosaur ribs and backbones, and then create a working model on the computer of the dinosaur backbone and rib cage. He hopes this work will help to answer the question of whether these animals were really warm blooded like us (not cold blooded like lizards and snakes) and acted a lot like the animal hunters of today, such as wolves or lions. Dr. Norton's other project is working on how to help make teachers better at their job. Outside of WorkWhen he’s not teaching or doing research, Dr. Norton has fun reading, going to movies, enjoying the Maine coast, making furniture, and making ship models. His recent models include making a model of the launch of the H.M.S. Bounty, including little figures of Lt. Bligh and the 18 other loyal crew members who were put into life boats and put out to sea. Another was a model of an Irish leather-covered boat that people think Irish monks used to sail to North America a long time ago. Now he is working on a model of Leonardo Da Vinci’s flying machine. His next project will be a model of a small boat used by 6 people to cross 800 miles of sea to reach South Georgia Island. It will have small crewmembers too. Dr. Norton has also helped out his local American Heart Association chapter with different activities. While his sons were going to school, he was always busy with parent-teacher groups, building committees, and sports booster clubs. He also helps out with the Dinosaur Discovery Center that was started by his brother who also likes dinosaurs. Both of them go to elementary classes and take models of dinosaur bones, teeth, skulls, and eggs to teach the students about dinosaur biology, physiology, evolution, and ecology. They are hoping to come up with materials on dinosaurs that teachers around the state can use in their classes.
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